Archaeological Discoveries

Isn't the Bible just another mythical religious book?

No — the evidence overwhelmingly refutes this claim.

A serious anti-Bible campaign got off the ground in the 1800s. When Darwin postulated random evolution, many of his contemporaries — turned off by a hypocritical church — jumped onto the bandwagon, believing they had been given an "out" from belief in a Creator. Predictably, it wasn't long before the Bible was placed under the microscope, and found by critics to be "inaccurate," "mythical," or "allegorical."

At the time, there was virtually no modern archaeology to test these assertions. What the critics did not expect was that hundreds of later historical claims would be substantiated by archaeological discoveries supporting the Bible's accuracy — often in minute detail. As field archaeologist Jonathan Gray put it, beyond reasonable doubt, the Bible is better informed than its critics. Nelson Glueck, one of the world's most eminent Middle Eastern archaeologists, stated it plainly: no archaeological discovery has ever controverted a biblical reference.

Consider the claim that David and Solomon never existed. In 1993, archaeologists excavating Tel Dan uncovered a 9th-century BC inscription bearing the words "Beit David" — "House of David" — alongside a reference to the "King of Israel." A second stone, the Moabite Stone, carries the same phrase from roughly the same period. As for Solomon, a Temple Hill tablet detailing repairs to his temple was authenticated in 2003; the historian Josephus recorded that a treaty between Solomon and Hiram of Tyre was still preserved in Tyre's public archives a thousand years later; and even a mountain in Kashmir bears his name to this day.

The pattern repeats across the biblical record — Pharaoh Shishak's campaign, Sennacherib's siege of Jerusalem, the exile and rations of King Jehoiachin, and nearly every Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian ruler the Bible names. Even the book of Daniel's once-doubted King Belshazzar was confirmed by cuneiform tablets discovered in the 20th century, describing him as co-regent with his father Nabonidus — exactly the arrangement Daniel describes.

This is an excerpt. The full article discusses further archaeological findings tied to Daniel's fiery furnace, the den of lions, and the historical reliability of the book of Daniel in greater depth.